Appalachian Bear Rescue

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Appalachian Bear Rescue Please help with the care of our cubs. DONATE today! http://appalachianbearrescue.org/
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Every Sunday, we’re introducing you to the stories behind the names of our six resident cubs because every name at ABR c...
10/11/2026

Every Sunday, we’re introducing you to the stories behind the names of our six resident cubs because every name at ABR carries meaning.

Next up: Redbud 🌺🐻

Redbud arrived at ABR on August 6, 2026, alongside her three siblings after their mother was struck and killed by a vehicle in Washington County, Tennessee.

At just over six months old, Redbud weighed only 10 pounds when she was rescued. Although she was the smallest of her siblings, veterinarians at the University of Tennessee found her to be healthy and gave her a good prognosis.

Her name comes from the eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), one of the first trees to announce spring in the Southern Appalachians. Long before most trees begin to leaf out, redbuds burst into bloom, covering their branches with vibrant pink and purple blossoms.

Known for their striking flowers, redbud trees are popular ornamentals. They grow quickly when young but they are an understory tree, reaching only 20-30 feet tall.

Despite belonging to the legume (or bean) family, redbuds do not form the root nodules needed to "fix" nitrogen in the soil. They do, however, produce flat, bean-like seed pods that provide food for birds, squirrels, and other wildlife, and are even edible for people.

In fact, nearly every part of the redbud tree has been used traditionally by humans for food, medicine, basket-making, and dye. The blossoms can be eaten fresh in salads, pickled as a caper substitute, candied, baked into treats, or brewed into sun tea and redbud jelly. Rich in nectar and pollen, the flowers also provide an important early-season food source for pollinators, especially native bees and butterflies. 🐝🦋

Often seen as a symbol of rebirth and resilience, the redbud is a fitting namesake for this particular cub.

Over the past few months, she has been steadily catching up to her siblings in size while spending her days exploring, climbing, foraging, and learning the skills she'll need to survive on her own.

In just a few short weeks, Redbud will be returning to the wild, where she can truly bloom.

Check back next Sunday for the last, but certainly not least, the story behind Marsh's name. 🐻 📖

10/09/2026

October 9, 2026 - Rounding out 🌰 🐻

It seems these days as if the only updates about the cubs we have to share with you are regarding their "rounding-out-ness". This is because basically all there is to do if you're a bear cub at ABR in October is eat!

Bear cubs come "equipped" with the ability to "shell" all kinds of nuts thanks to their prehensile lips (your vocabulary word for the day) and agile tongues. While tougher nut shells such as those on walnuts, pecans and hickory nuts' are still difficult for young bear cub teeth to break through, shells on acorns and chestnuts are no problem for little bears!

We are certainly in the depths of Bear Bulking Season and when it is bears vs acorns, bears always win!

A big part of protecting bears happens before a bear ever needs our help.ABR staff have been getting out in the communit...
10/08/2026

A big part of protecting bears happens before a bear ever needs our help.

ABR staff have been getting out in the community—from fall festivals and classrooms to our visitor center—helping people learn more about black bears and the simple things we can all do to keep them wild.

On Tuesday, ABR staff, Jaimie and Sarah, welcomed a group of excited homeschoolers to become Junior Bear Ambassadors!

After a reading The Troublesome Cub to the group, it was time to head outside and get moving.

The students became foraging bears, searching for cards showing acorns, berries, and insects to discover what bears eat throughout the year. Then came the tricky part: some of the cards showed things bears might find around our homes, like trash and bird feeders. The students had to figure out which items should never be left where a bear could find them.

They made bear tracks with stencils, built bear habitat with stamps, and got an up-close look at skulls, claws, and fur while learning about some of the amazing adaptations that make a black bear a black bear.

Then came the final test. To earn their Junior Bear Ambassador certificates, the students had to answer a few questions about what they had learned.

And they were ready!

“They can climb trees!” 🌳
“They eat insects and berries!”🫐
“We should never get close to bears!” 🛑
“We should never feed bears!” 🚫

Looks like we have our first graduating class from ABR’s Cub Academy! 🎓🐻

Education and outreach are a big part of what we do at Appalachian Bear Rescue. We want to reach more people, answer questions, share what we’ve learned, and help our communities become better neighbors to bears.

Our “The Bears Are Back in Townsend”fundraising campaign will help us expand our education and outreach efforts and bring the message of coexistence to more communities.

Donate today and help us inspire more people to understand, appreciate, and protect black bears—and keep them wild. 🌿🐻

10/06/2026

Hey ABR Family!

It's never a bad day to listen to stories from our long time friend, former employee, and current advisor, Kim Delozier. Follow the link in the post from Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park below to watch him on their new podcast with another good friend of ABR, the CEO and President of FOTS, Dana Soehn.

Kim is busiest retiree we know and finding a moment between his duties as a grandpa, husband, farmer, and overall standup citizen to share his stories and words of wisdom is a real treat. Hopefully, we'll be able to get him on an exclusive membership education night over the winter when he doesn't have to cut hay!

Enjoy.

Let the feast begin!!!October 5, 2026Weather: 78F/25CSunny with 40% HumidityAs we enter fall in the Appalachian, the lea...
10/05/2026

Let the feast begin!!!

October 5, 2026
Weather: 78F/25C
Sunny with 40% Humidity

As we enter fall in the Appalachian, the leaves begin to change color and fall, the heat starts to loosen its hold on the land, the trees start to drop nuts, and well the bears....bears really begin to EAT!

We all know about hyperphagia, the instinctual urge to stuff as much food in oneself as possible as fast as possible. We also know that bears are famous for this. The bears channel their inner Joey Chestnut (World Champion Hotdog Eater) and enter a food eating competition where the finish line is hibernation.

While our cubs get more active during this time of year, that activity is primarily for foraging rather than play. We see less wrestling, and more and more searching for food. In order to keep up with the growing caloric demands of these very very VERY hungry cubs, we constantly have to increase the amount of food we feed them. To further accommodate their constant NEED TO FEED, curators have taken to feeding the cubs multiple times a day!

For your viewing pleasure, we present various videos and pictures of the cubs chowing down. We hope you enjoy these. Crank up the volume on a few of videos to experience cub chewing ASMR (we haven't taught them to chew with their mouth closed yet).

Every Sunday, we’re introducing you to the stories behind the names of our six resident cubs—because every name at ABR c...
10/04/2026

Every Sunday, we’re introducing you to the stories behind the names of our six resident cubs—because every name at ABR carries meaning.

Next up: Poplar 🌳 🐻

Poplar was named after one of the Appalachian forest’s most iconic trees: the tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). Despite its name, it isn’t a true poplar (like a cottonwood tree) but it is a towering member of the magnolia family.

These trees rise straight and tall, sometimes more than 150 feet high, with trunks so smooth and straight that early settlers called them “canoe trees.” The wood from the tulip poplar was revered in Appalachia for many uses, from building cabins to making skinning boards and fur stretchers.🪵 🛶

In spring, tulip poplars unfurl bright green leaves shaped like little cat faces and bloom with yellow-orange flowers that look like lanterns tucked high in the canopy. These flowers provide a high volume of sugary nectar for bees, a vital source early in the season. Their branches shelter owls, squirrels, and black bears—including providing a great denning site for mother bears and their cubs. 🐝🦉

Tulip poplars grow fast, reaching for the light with determination—one reason they’ve long symbolized strength and growth.

Poplar, the cub, carries that same spirit.

Like his namesake, he’s growing—steadily, quietly, and with purpose. Every day in the wild enclosures allows to grow him to grow a little bigger, stronger and more confident as he prepares for life back in the forest.

Check back next Sunday to meet another one of our cubs and discover the story behind their name! 📖 🌿🐻

STATEMENT FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GREG on 60 Bears Euthanized in Sevier County This Year:Friends,It is disheartening to ...
10/02/2026

STATEMENT FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GREG on 60 Bears Euthanized in Sevier County This Year:

Friends,

It is disheartening to learn about the number of bears euthanized in Sevier County this year due to human-bear conflict. In recent years, we and other community partners have worked hard to encourage and implement BearWise practices to help humans and bears better coexist and reduce conflict, especially in the Gatlinburg area. Unfortunately, these are not the first, nor will they be the last bears to fall victim to the increasingly immense and incredibly complex issue of bears accessing human food and trash in this county.

We cannot continue to try to put out a wildfire with a garden hose. Whether it is a rental cabin, wedding venue, mini-golf course or mountain coaster every tourist attraction, restaurant, and hospitality business in Sevier County profits at the expense of the bears and their shrinking habitat. If you use the resource, you must protect the resource. We hate to say it, but unless our local government and economic leaders champion serious change sixty bears a year may, unfortunately, become "the cost of doing business in Sevier County."

Greg Grieco
Executive Director
Appalachian Bear Rescue

Via WVLT: "Tennessee reports 60 bears killed in Sevier County this year after ‘human-bear’ conflicts. In many cases, visitors to East Tennessee are the driving force behind bears getting used to being in human spaces, which is where the BearWise program comes in."

Via WATE: "Nearly all of the bears that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has had to euthanize because of human-bear conflicts have been located in Sevier County, the agency told 6 News. According to the TWRA, there have been 61 bears have had to be humanely killed this year because of human bear conflicts. 60 of those bears were located in Sevier County. The only bear that has had to be euthanized outside of Sevier County was in Blount County."

For the original articles, see the link in our comments below.

Thank you all for doing your part to keep bears wild.

📷: Lady of the Day Tour Company, 2024

10/01/2026

🚨Hard Launch🚨

The Bears are Back in Townsend Campaign is live!

Please lend us your support, likes, and shares to ensure this end of the year campaign is successful. Many of you have been so generous already this year that we have not had to ask for much. Our deepest thanks to all of you who have donated to our mission and liked and shared our posts. Your support keeps us going every day.

Without your support, our organization and our mission would not exist today, and there would be nowhere for orphaned and injured cubs from the Smoky Mountains to go. Our staff, our board members, and our bear cubs, present and future, are in your debt. From January 2025 to August 2026, we made the most of every single dollar via the Cubs Forever Campaign and your generosity. That overwhelming support fueled every bit of fence building, land clearing, cleaning, hanging, digging, designing, cutting, constructing, researching, engineering, and so many more monumental tasks that we had to complete to get to this point.

Together, we built a gold-standard facility. Now, it is time to ensure ABR’s world class rehabilitation system is there to help cubs in perpetuity.

We’re on our way. On July 28, 2026, Hemlock Bear (ABR #0427) was admitted into our care. Shortly after, four siblings came barreling in together (Redbud, Quince, Marsh, and Wintergreen Bears, ABR #0428-0431). Three weeks later, we reached our current maximum cub-capacity with the addition of Poplar Bear (ABR #0432). And, just like that, Bears are Back in Townsend!🐻🎉🥳

The return of cubs also means a return to 24/7 cub care and facility operations. As you can imagine, running a bear rescue is a bit more expensive when bears are on site. Someone must always be ready to answer the phone and spring into action when a cub needs help.📞🦸‍♂️

Moreover, we are working diligently to restore full operational capacity to our old wild enclosures to be able to house up to 18 bears on site at one time. During tough years for cubs, we’ve hit and exceeded that maximum capacity by mid-summer. We need your help to make sure that we are not forced to turn a cub away or release a cub back to the wild sooner than it is ready. ⚗️🦠🧪

Once again, we turn to our incredible community–our ABR Family–to raise the bar for Appalachian cubs in need.🧸

This Fall, our Bears are Back in Townsend campaign will bring more “cub’tastic” energy to our fundraising, events, merch, and rescue efforts than ever before. Every donation, cub adoption, store purchase, event ticket, auction item, and any other type of support during this campaign will be factored towards the total. Our goal is to raise $400,000 through this holiday season. Those funds will guarantee that our facility and our staff will be ready and willing should any cubs or yearlings need our state-of-the-art services through the coming Winter and Spring.🙌

With gratitude,

Greg Grieco🐻❤️👏

Donate here: https://appalachianbearrescue.org/donate-today/

Become a Member here: https://appalachianbearrescue.org/become-a-member/

Shop the ABR Store Here:
https://appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/

Address

Townsend, TN
37882

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+18654480143

Website

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